Homeless people and supporters marched on Portland City Hall on Monday morning after filing a lawsuit that argues their downtown camp is not recreational and should not be subject to a monthly city fine.

About 100 people, many of them campers at the Right 2 Dream Too homeless camp at Northwest Fourth Avenue and Burnside Street, gathered to hear lawyer Mark Kramer explain that he had filed a lawsuit Monday "on behalf of unified tenants and landlords against an unsympathetic city."

Right 2 Dream Too leases the land for $1 per year from landlords Michael Wright and his partners, Linda, Daniel and Donna Cossette.

The suit states that Right 2 Dream too is not a recreational campsite, as the city deems it.

"Right 2 Dream Too is not a Boy Scout Camp or a KOA, it's a temporary shelter, there because the city cannot meet people's housing needs," Kramer said to cheers from the crowd, some of whom carried signs. "Camping for survival is not recreation," said one sign, and "Housekeys not Handcuffs," said another.

Property owners of the campsite, established in October 2011, are being fined $1,346 per month by the city's Bureau of Development Services for violating recreational campground codes. Fines, which campers are expected to pay from donations they receive, are currently nearing $10,000.

The suit asks the judge to declare that the campsite is not a recreational park and waive all fines. It also argues the site should be designated as transitional housing accommodation under Oregon law, which allows for two such sites within a city – the first is Dignity Village.

Recently the campsite has come under increased scrutiny since developer David Gold, along with the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association, sent a letter last week urging the city to come up with a longterm solution to the campground.

Gold plans to turn the Grove Hotel, opposite the campsite, into a youth hostel. The Portland Development Commission has approved a proposal to loan Gold and his partners almost $2.65 million for the project.

Gold says that the success of his project depends on leasing ground floor space to a restaurant. But a restaurant there would overlook the campsite. So as long as the campsite is there, he says, he will not get a tenant. Speaking several days before the rally, he said that city officials had told him that more complaints would spur the city to action.

Camp landlord Michael Wright, interviewed at the rally, said that "the city listens to people with power and money; they need to listen to people like this who have come together to do something good at that site."

After the speeches the Dreamers, as they call themselves, surged into city hall aiming to present their lawsuit to city commissioners. Security guards, unable to stop them getting inside, blocked them in the lobby. The police were called and briefly shut down the street outside.

In all the confusion, camp founder Ibrahim Mubarak managed to get up to the mayor's office to present the suit.

The mayor's reaction?

"He told us that he would be passing it along to the next mayor," Mubarak said.